27 May 2008

Uniquetunes

the lads of the russian band Uniquetunes have been steadily honing their skills with a series of live recordings released on the ElectroSound netlabel. on their latest, self-titled studio release (as always, freely downloadable from ElectroSound) their endless hard work is in full effect, and listeners are rewarded with an extremely tight set of indie progressive jazz jams. so-called 'jam band' music can often fall into boring, self-absorbed repetition, or pointless technical showing-off, but Uniquetunes hits just the right balance of technical mastery and artful composition, while laying down some seriously deep funk in the process.
the album begins with several seconds of random radio noise. for me, this was the only negative point on the release-- the intro seems rather pointless and a bit annoying if you have to download the tracks individually! but after the intro, Uniquetunes launches into 7 tracks of some of the best psychedelic jams available. according to the release page, the album was recorded without the use of computers, and it sounds great. as with most new releases from the netaudio.ru family of netlabeles, it is offered in 192kbps streaming, as well as 320kpbs mp3 & flac downloads, so the sound quality as well as the musicianship is really stellar. pleasantly chilled grooves, melodic sax solos, lush swirling delays and tight precision drumming make this a perfect release for a warm & active spring evening.

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